Chapter 16

I was standing in the fancy kitchen of the beach house with Renée. It was one of those houses that I'd only ever really seen in fancy, home magazines in waiting rooms. The whole place made me feel like I was having an out of body experience or in someone else's home. I didn't know how Renée didn't feel out of place as well, but I supposed she had gotten used to it slowly after she started dating Phil.

Obviously, there were things about it that gave it a more personal touch like Renée's crystals, her herbs hanging to dry in one of the windows, and more, but the bones of it were, in the end, from some strange American fantasyland that I hadn't known in my whole life until this moment. It was apparent, though, that Phil certainly made good money at his job when he wasn't being a little league coach.

"Have you read much of the grimoire yet?" Renée asked me. Phil was out at work, which provided my mom the opportunity to talk about this with me. Phil seemed uncomfortable with Renée talking about her "quirky hobby" as if it was a real thing that had an effect on the world around her. Which was, understandable, I supposed. Now that I knew it was real; it felt a little odd to me that Renée didn't find herself someone that was well... aware of these things.

"A little bit," I replied with a slight twist to my mouth. It was mostly just recipes for things, and I didn't really understand much of it, like the purpose or what notes like intent, moon cycles, and the like, had to do with it. Renée gave a soft laugh and waved a hand dismissively.

"Don't worry," she chuckled, "I didn't expect you to understand on a first pass. I just wanted you to get an idea of the kind of things magic requires to work. It's not like in the movies where you wave a hand, and it just happens, after all." I blinked.

"But it is ...cooking?" I tilted my head slightly as I asked, looking at the battered, leather bound book with yellowing pages. Renée had said that this was my grandmother's grimoire, and I certainly hadn't recognized the handwriting in it.

"That's right!" Renée said with a smile. I looked at her suspiciously.

"But you're terrible at cooking."

"It's a lot easier when the taste isn't important." Renée replied, entirely unbothered by the insult, and I supposed that made sense.

"Ritual spells are the only kind I can really do." She explained, taking the grimoire from my hands and flipping through the yellowed pages.

"There are a few other kinds that I imagine you'll have more luck with, since your magic will be a lot more accessible now. Like... here! See, these your grandmother used a lot." Renée was pointing at some written symbols on the page with brief notes written next to them that I couldn't read very well. It seemed like as the book went on my grandma's script got looser and more impossible to read.

"These are runes," Renée said, by way of explanation, "They're for quick, easy magic on the go or when paired properly, much more powerful defensive magic than anything I can do with rituals. They use innate magic from the caster rather than what's in the ingredients that you use for ritual spells." I nodded as Renée explained, showing me how to write them and pointing out my grandma's notes on the importance of the medium used, such as blood, ink, and carving them. Renée also went over the brief bit where my grandma had designed a tattoo to have put on herself by another witch she knew, which I hadn't even been aware of as a possibility or as something my grandma would have done?

"I have one too, you know," Renée said as I looked at her incredulously. I had always thought my parents would have the same feelings on tattoos as like... most people did. Renée just laughed waving her hand.

"Here, I'll show you." Renée lifted the hem of her shirt, showing me the row of runes on her hip.

"These take a lot more planning than most runic magic since they're so permanent, but they'll also protect you for a very long time. I'll help you design one for yourself when you're older." Renée said with a playful wink, and I sighed slightly in response. I supposed I should've expected my free spirited mother to still be free spirited even when she was living it up in a fancy beach-house.

After explanations, Renée guided me through a few simple spells. She had me make tea several times, explaining ingredients as they were used, and taste testing the spells when I finished. It took me a couple tries before I was actually making anything other than just tea, since I had to get a feel for well, using magic. It was strange.

Once I seemed to have the hang of that, we tried some runes, which I had a hard time figuring out if I was even doing correctly until one of the slips of paper burnt away to ash on the counter as soon as I'd written the rune down.

"Great job!" Renée had applauded me, while I looked at her with wide eyes of surprise.

"I did tell you it was a fire rune." She chuckled at me, and I didn't know what to say. However, I was pretty sure that was enough for me for the day. I felt bone-tired. Renée had assured me that was normal for depleting magic resources and that I would get better at managing it with practice. A part of me, however, felt like I had somehow lost three weeks of time tripping over into a fantasy land.

We cleaned up the kitchen, and Renée went out to the beach while I hid back in my room for the afternoon. I was tired and certainly didn't want to socialize anymore than I already had. Back in the pastel bedroom, I glanced at the mirror that I had covered when I first got out of the hospital after seeing my completely bandaged half of my face. I hadn't wanted to see myself like that, covered in gauze, but now, I was somewhat curious.

I wasn't sure if curiosity was the right word for it, but Renée had helped me take off all the bandages earlier and told me that I still looked much the same to her, despite it all. So maybe the marks weren't as prominent as I thought they were.

I hesitated a moment before removing the towel from the dresser's mirror slowly. I flinched slightly at the bandages that were still on my body. I had never really seen anyone wrapped up this seriously before, so it was definitely a lot to see it on myself. Still, I couldn't live the rest of my life hiding from my own appearance, and I had been cleared to remove them by the doctors a few days ago.

I started with the least offensive bandage on my arm first. My skin beneath it was cool to the touch, and it looked like every blood vessel had been painted over with scar tissue. Did the vampire do this to me? Or was it my body's reaction to being turned? I ran my finger over the tight, raised skin curiously. It looked more artistic than I'd expected it to.

I kept going until I reached the ones on my face, hesitating. I touched them lightly, a bit nervously. I could stand to wait a little longer, right? I glanced at the pink lines that stretched just past my elbow all the way up to my neck and under the tape on my chin. I frowned slightly at my reflection.

Taking a deep breath, I tore it off as quickly as I could, flinching at the pain the sticky tape left behind. When I opened my eyes to look at my reflection, I gasped in shock immediately hiding the left side of my face from view by instinct. The pink lines continued up across my cheek, over my eye and one went through my eyebrow to my forehead. Slowly, I turned my head to look at it again, touching my finger to the widest of the lines. The most shocking part though, was my left eye. It was red. A dark red that almost matched the dark brown of my other eye, but it was still a different color in the bright lighting from the afternoon sun and fluorescent lights.

It really had been a vampire that bit me. There was a large crescent mark on my neck as well, where every one of the scar lines converged on. My skin was coolest to the touch there as well. It was obvious that I had barely survived the encounter with the vampire. I suddenly understood why Renée and Charlie were so worried now that I was getting a good look at myself. It looked like I had been in some sort of serious accident now. Like I'd been splashed with some kind of chemical. It was a bit frightening to look at.

I tore my eyes away from my reflection, dropping the towel back into place. I would get used to it eventually. For now, I'd looked enough though. I curled up on the bed and tried not to think anymore. It wasn't too hard with how tired I already was. The afternoons here were also so warm that I was soon off to sleep.

.

It was night time when I woke up. My eyes were heavy with sleep, and I had finally managed to not have a single nightmare. When I glanced at the clock, I saw that I hadn't been sleeping for more than three hours though. It was only eight o'clock. I could hear the TV playing in the living room and the soft murmur of Phil or Renée speaking. I sat up slowly, rubbing the rest of the sleep out of my eyes and pulling the strap of my tank top back in place. The room was quiet, and I wished I would have slept longer.

I left the comfort of the bed to go over to the window. Something was telling me I needed to go open the window this evening. As soon as I opened it, I heard a distant, mournful howl that was much closer than the night before. Confusion rushed through me as I had a feeling that made no sense at all to me. Still, I knew that howl was Jacob. I poked my head out the window slightly to see if I could see him nearby. When I didn't, I paused for a moment to feel completely insane for what I was about to do before pulling on some jean shorts and sandals and slipping right out the window.

I'd find my way back.

So, chapter writing is going swimmingly for now. I'm just about done writing ch18, so I'll keep updating daily? every few days? until I run out of steam for now. I'm currently in the process of moving which might make posting a bit dicey but we shall see. Hope ya'll are enjoying these changes at least! I sure am :)))